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China's e-commerce giant Alibaba Group on Friday announced its acquisition of the South China Morning Post (SCMP), a major English newspaper in China's Hong Kong.
Alibaba made the announcement through a press release in Hong Kong, saying that it has made an agreement to acquire the newspaper and other media assets of the Hong Kong-listed SCMP Group.
"The SCMP is unique because it focuses on coverage of China in English language which is in high demand by readers around the world who care to understand the world's second largest economy," said Joseph Tsai, executive vice chairman of Alibaba Group.
Tsai said that Alibaba will expand the SCMP newspaper's global readership through digital distribution and easier access to content.
In parallel with the announcement of acquisition, Tsai also released a letter to the SCMP readers entitled "Marrying heritage and new technology: a vision for the digital age."
Talking about Alibaba's vision on the SCMP, Tsai said the company will push down "the pay wall" on the SCMP.com to allow free access to its content with enough preparation time after takeover.
Tsai dismissed the concerns on the SCMP's editorial independence after Alibaba's takeover.
The SCMP will be objective, accurate and fair in reporting the news, and day-to-day editorial decisions will be driven by editors in the newsroom, not in the corporate boardroom, Tsai promised.
Alibaba is both humbled and excited to be the new owner of the SCMP's media assets with an age difference between the two companies of nearly 100 years, Tsai said in the letter.
The SCMP was founded by Tse Tsan-tai and Alfred Cunningham in 1903. Alibaba Group was founded by Jack Ma in 1999 and listed on New York Stock Exchange in 2014.
The SCMP was previously owned by Kerry Media. Buying the SCMP is the first acquisition of overseas media assets for Alibaba.
Apart from the flagship SCMP newspaper, Alibaba will acquire the broadsheet's affiliated publications including the Sunday Morning Post, SCMP.com with its mobile apps, and two Chinese websites Nanzao.com and Nanzaozhinan.com.
The agreement also includes the acquisition of the magazine, recruitment, outdoor media, events and conferences, education and digital media businesses of the SCMP Group.
The SCMP was first listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 1971 and was privatized by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation in 1987. It has been relisted since 1990.
"With proven expertise especially in mobile Internet, Alibaba is in an excellent position to leverage technology to create content more efficiently and reach a global audience," said Robin Hu, chief executive officer of SCMP.
"We welcome Alibaba's commitment to invest additional resources in its editorial and business operations to make the SCMP even stronger," Hu said.
With C2C, B2C and B2B online trading portals, Alibaba has been the world's largest e-commerce company in terms of annual trading volume.
